I Tried It: There’s No Wrong Way to Sit in This TikTok-Famous Chair

Pipersong Meditation Chair

Reviewer: Elise Portale, contributor
Model tested: Pipersong Meditation Chair

The details

I’ve been a champion of unconventional office chairs ever since I first tried the famous Varier kneeling chair. So imagine my excitement when I spied a TikTok of someone crisscross applesauce in a wacky office chair contraption unlike anything I’d ever seen. “This is the perfect chair for bisexuals,” I thought to myself (IYKYK), and damn if I wasn’t right. Because if anything was designed to go viral on TikTok, it’s the Pipersong Meditation Chair, and from the moment this bisexual saw it, she needed to try it for herself.

The hype

“Sit as you like”: That’s what the header on the Pipersong website claims. And if you go by the product photos alone, you can see they mean business with at least nine different seating positions and configurations. In a world where kneeling chairs and standing desks are becoming more and more commonplace in the home office, the traditional way of sitting in a plain old chair is truly falling out of fashion. Who among us hasn’t wanted to sit half cross-legged in their supposedly ergonomic office chair? I’ll admit, the thing that really sold me was the ability to spin the Pipersong’s seat around in order to sit propped up against the backrest, like a very comfortable, very cool teacher. I’m no ergonomics specialist, but as a self-described fat person, I do believe in sitting in ways your body feels the most comfortable, and sometimes that means propping one foot up, knees between your elbows as you type, while the other foot rests flat on the ground. If you’re going to be sitting at a desk all day, shouldn’t the sitting itself be more fun? That’s the kind of experience the Pipersong Meditation Chair promises.

The space

The way the Pipersong works is rather ingenious. It consists of three swiveling parts: the base, the footstool, and the seat. These three pieces spin independent of each other, meaning you can sit forward, backward, sideways, or whichever other way you want. You can enjoy crossing your legs on the full footstool in front, roll it to the side for a single-legged experience, or spin it behind you entirely to get some traditional L-shaped sitting in (Pipersong calls this freestyle). Comfort being the goal, the Pipersong’s footstool is outfitted with 1.5-inch high-density foam, meaning that your knees, shins, and ankles are well padded no matter how you choose to sit. The backrest, too, is deceptively comfortable, for while it looks about as supportive as a high school desk chair, its tilt and 120-degree lumbar support feel great, without forcing you into any particular position. The perfectly round seat has that doctor’s stool look as well; this might not seem comfortable, especially if you’re used to wide office chair seats with that webbing material, but its extra-thick high-resilient foam is remarkably comfortable for an eight-hour workday. And even if you’re concerned about being able to adjust the height on the backrest or want a wider seat cushion, you’re in luck: The company is launching an upgraded version with those features this winter.